10% Happier: Sleep, Water and Small Free Habits That Make Keto Easier
A 39-minute Facebook Live from a friend's place in May 2019, a week after my Stall Breaker broadcast. That one was the technical, fast answer. This one is the slower path for people who aren't ready for the bleeding edge. The idea is borrowed: small, free habits that each make you a bit happier, and that add up to better food decisions.
There's almost no food in it. It's still one of the more useful things I recorded about why diets stall.
In this recording
- [1:34] Picking up from Stall Breaker: people want fast results, get the answer, then try to change it because the answer isn't fun.
- [2:26] Happiness versus pleasure, an idea I took from the book The Art of Happiness. What's rewarding and what's pleasant aren't always the same.
- [4:29] "10% happier," which I credited to an author who wrote about meditation as something modest, free and accessible, not a cure-all.
- [5:10] What I'd noticed in the group: people rarely struggle over which foods fit. They struggle with consistency.
- [6:39] Sleep and meditation as free tools. I admitted I'm not much of a meditator, because I fall asleep.
- [7:25] Water: most people have tap water. Water, sleep and meditation are free, and I said they help food choices and cravings.
- [8:43] Meditation at its simplest: sit for two minutes and notice your thoughts without trying to solve them.
- [10:02] About 30 minutes of light cardio, like a walk or a bike, enough to get you lightly breathing.
- [12:18] Mantras and music: pick three songs, nine to twelve minutes, that motivate you.
- [13:39] Sleep in detail. My bar is seven good hours a night minimum. I admitted I didn't get it the night before.
- [15:17] Caffeine: I have at most two coffees a day. Running on caffeine to cover lost sleep doesn't work.
- [16:41] Short sleep, I said, means poorer food decisions, more eating and less willpower.
- [17:23] Practical sleep fixes: night colour shift on your phone, no screens in the last hour, a dark room, pink noise.
- [20:12] Build a toolkit of at least three, because some days one won't be available.
- [21:37] Disclaimer: I'm not qualified. I make suggestions and point to research. Ask your doctor.
- [23:34] More from the comments: nature, sunshine, journaling, coloring books, herbal tea, a drive.
- [25:45] Body-weight squats and the push-up progression from a standing wall hold down to the floor.
- [30:43] If your diet keeps slipping, the reason may be sleep and hydration, not the diet.
- [31:44] Some days 2% is all you'll get, and that's still progress. I mentioned it had been a tough two years for me (live SVTV6584).
The last few minutes are group announcements and a coaching offer, left out here.
Watching this in 2026
This is the companion Stall Breaker needed. The week before, I'd said the problem was inside you. Here I named what's usually inside: tired, dehydrated, stressed and out of tools. Telling someone to try harder doesn't fix any of those. A glass of water, an earlier bedtime or a two-minute sit can.
The line I'd keep is at [30:43]: if you're failing at the diet, look at sleep and water first. It treats a lapse as information, not a character flaw, and that's the approach I want this community to have. Stall Breaker's tough love was aimed at people who'd signed up for it. This one is for everybody.
It also squares with my earliest position on exercise. I said in 2017 that weight loss is made in the kitchen, and that you exercise for your health (do you need exercise?). Here exercise shows up as a mood and stress tool, not a calorie burner. Same view, two years on.
What I'd flag
I mentioned studies on air: caffeine giving an hour of help and then costing you, a prison study about views of trees, reduced cortisol helping fat loss. None of those are on the evidence pages for this site. I'm not going to put numbers next to them here. Treat them as things I'd read, not checked findings.
Two practical notes. On water, more isn't always better: drinking far more than thirst asks for can flush electrolytes, which I covered in am I drinking enough water?. And because this is about mood: if low mood is most days, not some days, that's a conversation for your doctor, not a habit list. The same goes for a history of disordered eating. See eating disorders.
Key points
- Free habits each give a little: sleep, water, two minutes of stillness, a 30-minute walk, music, time outside.
- My sleep bar: seven good hours minimum. Cut screens and light before bed.
- Caffeine can't make up for lost sleep.
- If the diet keeps slipping, check sleep and hydration before blaming yourself.
- Build a toolkit of three, so a rainy day doesn't take out your only habit.
- Persistent low mood or eating-disorder history: talk to a doctor.